Media setting aside rivalries in fight to survive

The famous line about how we must hang together or we'll hang separately has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin, a reputed call for interdependence in support of independence.

Franklin was a visionary in many respects, including, it turns out, the news business, one of his occupations and preoccupations.

Here we are, more than two and a quarter centuries later, with media outfits of every stripe in the economic wringer -- their audience splintering off in the limitless options of the Internet, while traditional advertisers struggle in the throes of their own financial crisis -- and the old newspaperman Franklin's idea of coming together to better be able to stand on one's own while under attack is increasingly fashionable.

NBC Local Media and Fox Television Stations on Thursday unveiled a plan to launch a local news service in Philadelphia that is expected to become a template for similar joint operations in markets such as Chicago, where both groups own and operate TV stations.

Such a video-sharing service in Chicago, where it could be up and running within a year, would draw upon resources of Fox-owned WFLD-Ch. 32 and NBC Universal-owned WMAQ-Ch. 5 but be independently run. The service's content also would be available to other interested local media outlets, including other TV and radio stations, print publications and digital media.

"We very definitely want to do this in Chicago, and we think it would be a real good opportunity, not just for our two stations but for the other ones in the market," said Jack Abernethy, chief executive of News Corp.'s Fox owned-and-operated group.

Now, rival outlets each send crews to shoot the same news conferences, sports events and other non-exclusive news. They each fly helicopters for similar shots of fires and traffic jams.

What each outlet's reporters, editors and producers do with the raw video is what makes the coverage unique, so why not just set up a video pool for general news and send crews elsewhere?

If those crews are sent out to proprietary, enterprise stories, that's good for viewers.

If economic pressures mount and they're just sent packing, maybe not so good.

"Times are changing," NBC Local Media President John Wallace said. "Jack and I started having these conversations a year ago, before the economy was as grim as it is today, but we both recognized there were smarter ways to using our news dollars to grow our news product. ... We felt that by focusing on enterprise reporting, that would give both our stations a competitive advantage."

Even with video from the new service, each station still will have to do its own reporting.

Frank Whittaker, WMAQ's station manager and vice president of news, said there have been early talks between WMAQ and WFLD.

"But we both want to make sure we preserve the editorial integrity of both stations, while at the same time using our resources more efficiently."

It's not just TV. Newspapers also are looking to see where operations can be made more efficient via cooperation.

In Texas, Bob Mong, editor of Belo's Dallas Morning News, informed staff recently that there have been discussions of collaborating with the McClatchy Co.-owned rival Ft. Worth Star-Telegram in a few targeted areas of newsgathering.

In Washington, Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co. is streamlining its operations to eliminate overlapping coverage in the nation's capital among its own newspapers, a move that eliminated around 20 jobs, including five from this paper.

Ultimately, these joint endeavors will be judged only partly in financial terms, however. If the quality of the product suffers, that Franklin concept of a penny saved being a penny earned may not add up.

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philrosenthal@tribune.com

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